Rhodes, known for hard work, friendship, dies of stab wounds

By STEPHANIE LEE and LAUREN STANFORTH Staff writers

Updated 11:08 am, Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Tyler Rhodes of Albany is seen in an undated photo from his MySpace page. Rhodes was fatally stabbed on Saturday.

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Tyler Rhodes of Albany is seen in an undated photo from his MySpace...

Candlelight Vigil for Tyler Rhodes
/ Times Union

A memorial, seen here on Sunday afternoon, May 1, 2011 in Albany, has been set up on the edge of Hoffman Park for Tyler Rhodes of Albany who was stabbed Saturday near the area and later died of his injuries. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

A memorial, seen here on Sunday afternoon, May 1, 2011 in Albany,...

A memorial, seen here on Sunday afternoon, May 1, 2011 in Albany, has been set up on the edge of Hoffman Park for Tyler Rhodes of Albany who was stabbed Saturday near the area and later died of his injuries. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

A memorial, seen here on Sunday afternoon, May 1, 2011 in Albany,...

A memorial, seen here on Sunday afternoon, May 1, 2011 in Albany, has been set up on the edge of Hoffman Park for Tyler Rhodes of Albany who was stabbed Saturday near the area and later died of his injuries. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

A memorial, seen here on Sunday afternoon, May 1, 2011 in Albany,...

Tyler Rhodes, is seen here as an Albany High School ninth-grader reading his rap song during the "More Rhymes, Les Crime" show at the Palace Theater in November 2008. He was stabbed to death Saturday night. (Times Union archive photo by Michael P. Farrell)

ALBANY -- To find Tyler Rhodes, you often didn't have to look farther than Hoffman Park, where the 17-year-old Albany High student spent hours shooting hoops and hanging out with friends.

And it was there that Rhodes spent some of the final moments of his life Saturday night, when police say he was fatally stabbed.

On Sunday, under a fading evening sky, more than a hundred of Rhodes' friends and family members gathered outside the park to remember the youth known for loving everyone. They held candles and cellphones high in the air, prayed aloud and sobbed. They kneeled next to a memorial, complete with flowers, baseball caps and balloons, at the base of a utility pole.

Clutching a candle, Rhodes' mother, Stacey Rhodes, described her son as smart, athletic and fun-loving.

"He told you how it was," she said, "whether you liked it or not."

Rhodes, of Washington Avenue, said her son had told her he was going to Hoffman Park the night of his death. Their family once lived in the area before moving away, but he often returned to ride bikes and catch up with his old neighbors.

"It wasn't worth it," she said. "It was senseless."

Police said the teenager was stabbed with an unknown instrument around 7 p.m. in the area of Hoffman Avenue and Corlaer Street and was transported to Albany Medical Center Hospital, where he died of his injuries. No one is in custody in connection with Rhodes' death, and the investigation continues.

Rhodes was a junior at Albany High School who sprinted on the track and field team and was popular among his classmates.

Cecily Wilson, interim North House principal at Albany High, said that although good grades didn't necessarily come easily to the teenager, he worked hard, particularly in history.

"I never had issues with him. He got himself to classes on time," she said. "When I hadn't seen him in a while, he'd joke, 'You know, Ms. Wilson, you haven't seen me in a while; I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.'"

Wilson said she last spoke to the teenager a week ago. She'd missed seeing him in the last track meet and wanted to find out when the next one was.

A Facebook page has been established calling for all students to wear blue on Monday in honor of Rhodes.

The Times Union published a feature on Rhodes in November 2008. He performed a rap at an anti-violence show called "More Rhymes, Less Crimes," at the Palace Theatre, an event sponsored in part by the Albany County district attorney's office. Rhodes, then a ninth-grader at Albany High, recounted how he feared for his life when he saw someone shoot out of a car on Southern Boulevard.

At the 2008 show, his rap included the following words: "Albany, a place I call home and every street I'd roam, but now the very same city that raised me is tryin' to consume me."

On Sunday, after candles had been lit and prayers murmured, someone turned on a hip-hop song: "I'll Be Missing You," Puff Daddy's tribute to The Notorious B.I.G.

As the beat drifted out of the speaker, it meshed with the rhythm of basketballs swishing through the net and feet pounding the court. It was what Rhodes would have done. And so, an hour before the vigil began, it only made sense to Rhodes' lifelong friend, 16-year-old Mack Hogan, to run a lap around the park with two dozen others.

"I'm going to keep living," he said, "and staying active for the both of us."